Tried, Sentenced, Executed
by Kaleidoscope3
Summary: During the revolution against the Soviets, the Allies take an irreplacable loss ...


DISCLAIMER:  I don't own it, and got no money.  So there.

Tried, Sentenced, Executed:  A chapter out of an alternate universe RA2 follow-up.  Assume Russians won the Yuri Campaign, now it's an Allied revolt.

      The flak track rolled through the gated walls surrounding the Tesla Center, coming to a halt before the massive building.  Tanya looked skyward as the conscripts marched her out, marveling at the coils of electricity that crackled across the cerulean surface of the Tesla sphere.

      Marshal Zofia stood on the steps leading to the Tesla Center, her arms folded before her, armed guards on either side.

      "So," she said, "it is Lieutenant Eva Lee, and the vaunted Agent Tanya.  Somehow, I thought the leaders of the Allied revolt would be more difficult to apprehend.  Welcome, both of you, to my Tesla Center.  I think you will find your stay somewhat . . . brief."

      "You talk big, for someone who's losing a war," Tanya said.  "I guess the Generalissimo was right about you.  You've got big ambitions, but the execution is somewhat lacking."

      "The Generalissimo said that?"  Zofia laughed.  "The fool.  Too bad his wit couldn't save him from my wrath."

      "So he's dead, then," Tanya said, hardly surprised.  "How?"

      "I think you know."

      "Jesus, that's why you nuked Philadelphia."

      "You are quite correct," Zofia said.  "But I tire of hearing your voice.  You are surprisingly silent, Lieutenant, for one who is so skilled in rallying the troops."  Zofia reached out, holding the lieutenant's chin in her hand.  "What, Lieutenant?  No biting remark like your friend has?"  She smiled.  "So pretty, for a revolutionary.  Such a nice neck."  She looked at Tanya.  "And you, too, though your looks are perhaps more . . . _Hollywood_ than I prefer."  Suddenly, she changed demeanor, becoming all business.  "Major," she said to the officer escorting them, "remove the traitors.  They will appear before me for trial this evening, twenty hundred hours."  She smiled as she turned to walk back into the Tesla Center.  "I suspect the proceedings will not be too long."

*    *    *

      "Eva Lee, you have been charged with the capital crime of high treason against the Soviet Union," said a Soviet army colonel, reading from a sheet of paper.  Zofia sat behind a high podium, looking down on Eva and Tanya, who sat shackled in the center of the room.  "How do you plead?"

      "Innocent!" Eva cried out.

      "So noted," said the colonel.  "Tanya Adams, you have been charge with the capital crime of high treason against the Soviet Union.  How do you plead?"

      "Does it matter?" Tanya growled.  Glancing around the silent room, she shrugged.  "Innocent, I guess."

      "So noted."

      "Having reviewed the facts of the case," said Zofia, "I have reached a decision.  On the charges of high treason against the Soviet Union, the State finds the defendants guilty.  The only penalty for this crime is death, to be carried out tomorrow morning."  Zofia rapped her gavel once.  "Captain Konstantin, remove the prisoners."

*    *    *

      The cell was small, but relatively comfortable, after the German wilderness.  Tanya flopped herself down on one of the two cots they had been provided, and was on the verge of falling asleep when Eva spoke.

      "Tanya," she said, "we're going to die tomorrow, aren't we."

      "That _is_ what the good marshal has planned," Tanya agreed.

      "How can you . . . just . . . not care like that?  How can you be so cold?"

      Tanya glared at her.  "It's not like there's anything I can do, Lieutenant.  There're enough Commies in this base to take out everything we have in Germany—not to mention that Tesla sphere thing, whatever the hell that does.  So I figure I have two choices—I can try to escape, get killed that way, or face Zofia tomorrow, and not let her see me flinch.  You have the same choice, so I suggest you make your decision."

      Eva nodded.  "I understand.  Sort of."  She sighed.  "I suppose I admire you, Tanya—you've always been the one to do things, while I sit in a room with TVs and computers and tell you what to do.  No danger, no nothing."

      "No danger?  You're _here_, aren't you?"  Tanya laughed.  "And hell, you _started_ this whole revolution!  I meant what I said back there—the Soviets are finished, and Zofia knows it.  So what if we're not there to see it."  She shrugged.  "Everybody dies, eventually.  Might as well be for something you believe in."

      Eva smiled.  "Thank you.  That means more to you than you know."

*    *    *

      They came at seven o'clock in the morning, a squad of conscripts and the same major as before.  Tanya and Eva didn't say a word, falling in step with them as the Soviets escorted them to the inner courtyard of the Tesla Center, where Zofia was waiting.

      The Soviet marshal stood on a gallows; the scaffolding platform built a few feet off the ground.  Two ropes hung from the gallows crosspiece, the free ends looped and tied in the hangman's knot.  Two Soviet officers, a major and a captain—the hangmen—stood to either side of her, black hood covering their heads, their eyes the only parts of their faces that were visible.

      "Good morning," Zofia said to them as the major escorted them onto the scaffold.  "So nice of you to join us."  She nodded to the hangmen, who began their work.  Quickly, they took Eva and Tanya in their expert hands, cuffing their hands behind their backs.  They went to stand on the trapdoors beneath the ropes, Eva on the right and Tanya on the left, and then the hangmen bound their legs, shackling them at the ankles.  Finally, they were ready for the ropes.  The major, with Eva, practically tossed the noose over his victim's head, tightening it quickly.  The captain, on the other hand, took his time slipping the rope around Tanya's neck, adjusting it delicately and pulling her hair clear of the noose.  Finished for the moment, the hangmen stepped back, behind the prisoners.

      Now, Zofia walked slowly back and forth before them, reading from their death warrants.  "Eva Lee, you have been convicted of the crime of high treason against the Soviet Union.  The sentence of death is to be carried out today.  Do you have anything to say before your sentence is carried out?"

      "Tanya," said Eva, slowly, carefully, as not to betray her fear, "it was an honor to serve with you."

      "The honor was mine, Lieutenant."

      Zofia smiled.  "How sweet."  She looked at the major.  "Execute the sentence."

      The hangman nodded acknowledgement, and pulled the lever beside him, releasing the trapdoor beneath Eva's feet.  The lieutenant had only a moment of surprised awareness of falling before the rope reached its end.  Eva's body shuddered once, hugely and convulsively, as the rope snapped her neck.

      Tanya blinked back tears as she looked at Eva, dead, the rope creaking as her body turned in a slow circle, swinging gently back and forth in the breeze.

      Zofia nodded her approval, and continued.  "Tanya Adams, you have been convicted of the crime of high treason against the Soviet Union.  The sentence of death is to be carried out today.  Do you have anything to say before your sentence is carried out?"

      Tanya glared defiantly at the Russian marshal.  "Just get on with it."

      "Hangman, you may execute the sentence."

      To Tanya, it felt like an eternity passed.  She heard the captain behind her, stepping slowly toward the lever.  She saw Zofia's smile grow with anticipation, saw her eyes burning with hatred.  She heard the hangman's gloved hands slide against the wooden lever, and then she heard him start to pull it.  She felt her knees weaken as the lock on the trapdoor went _ka-CHUNK_ beneath her, and suddenly, the door fell, and Tanya with it.  The noose was suddenly tight against her neck, and then there was a hammer blow against the back of her neck, and a flash of light—

      And then nothing, but the creak of the rope.

*    *    *

      Marshal Zofia watched the body of Tanya, noose around her broken neck, for a long time before she stepped down off the gallows.  She checked her watch—seven thirty, on the dot.  She looked back at the gallows, the hangmen . . . and Eva and Tanya, still hanging from the crosspiece.

      "Cut them down," she said.  She turned to the officer of the security detail, the major, who had filmed the executions.  "You.  I want the tape edited and put on the news tonight.  The 'Allies' will know the fate of traitors."  She paused.  "And have a copy sent to my desk."


End file.
